Acropolis Rally

This was Ari's first WRC victory and it came with a commanding performance in a year when an unusually high number of works cars reached the finish of the famously rough event. After leading from the third stage to the finish it was no triumph by default for Vatanen. Dust was a perennial problem until half-distance, when the competitors were reclassified and rally leader Ari got to start the stages as first car. Even then punctures soon dropped him back on the road and again he had to brave the hazard of dust.

"My memories of various Acropolis Rallies tend to mix up, but what I do remember from the competitive side of this one was the apprehension of not knowing how close Timo Salonen and the others had got to us. We lost time with several punctures and with the vague results service of those times we could never be quite sure how big the gap was. It was a nervous time racing through Peloponnesos. At times near desperation crept in: I couldn't be confident we'd actually clung on to our lead. But then we'd hear others had had problems, too, and that lifted the spirits.

I do remember the great feeling when we arrived at the finish in the old Olympic Stadium in central Athens. Despite holding the lead for so long there had been moments, when I'd thought we'd missed out yet again.

I had been waiting for it for so long! There had been so many near misses: I'd made so many mistakes, broken so many cars, but technical failure and circumstance had played their part, too. After all that, I finally managed to break the duck in the most gruelling rally, Safari excepted.

In those days we all used to stay in Glifada with our families and my wife Rita came with our three-weeks old daughter Ria. Can you imagine how happy I was?"